Sources claim Sinofsky wasn't a team player. He leaves the company after 20+ years.

Steven Sinofsky, president of Windows and Windows Live Division, is leaving Microsoft effective immediately, reports All Things D.

The move is claimed to be a result of growing discontent within the software giant, with a number of executives reportedly unhappy when working with him due to his failure to be a "team player." Such a move has striking parallels with Scott Forstall's recent exit from Apple.

Sinofsky held his current position since 2009, but he joined Microsoft in 1989, more than 20 years ago. All Things D says responsibility for Windows will now be split between two of Sinofsky's reports: Julie Larson-Green, who will head up Windows engineering, and Tami Reller, who will take care of the business side.

In a press release, CEO Steve Ballmer said the company needed to be more aligned and integrated, with more regular software releases:

I am grateful for the many years of work that Steven has contributed to the company. The products and services we have delivered to the market in the past few months mark the launch of a new era at Microsoft. We've built an incredible foundation with new releases of Microsoft Office, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Microsoft Surface, Windows Server 2012, and Halo 4, and great integration of services such as Bing, Skype, and Xbox across all our products. To continue this success it is imperative that we continue to drive alignment across all Microsoft teams, and have more integrated and rapid development cycles for our offerings.

In his statement, Sinofsky wrote:

It is impossible to count the blessings I have received over my years at Microsoft. I am humbled by the professionalism and generosity of everyone I have had the good fortune to work with at this awesome company.

Update: Microsoft has confirmed the new roles of Larson-Green and Reller in a press release.

From the Verge, we have the text of Ballmer's internal mail announcing the changes:

Over the past few months we have delivered the foundation for a new era for Microsoft. From Office to Bing to Windows Phone and Windows Azure, to Xbox and of course Windows and Surface and everything in between, we’ve unleashed a huge wave of devices and services that people and businesses love. I simply couldn’t be more proud of the effort you have all put in to get us here and to set the foundation for our future. At the Windows launch in New York, at the Windows Phone event in San Francisco, and again at the Build event on Redmond campus, I was struck that while externally many people look at these events as the finish line, they really represent the starting line of a new era.

As we enter this new era, and with the successful launch of Windows 8 and Surface behind us, Steven Sinofsky has decided to leave the company. Steven joined Microsoft in 1989 as a software development engineer and has contributed to the company in many ways from his work as a technical advisor to Bill Gates, to leading the evolution of the Microsoft Office business, to his direction and successful leadership of Windows and Windows Live as well as Surface. I am grateful for the work that Steven has delivered in his time at our company. Effective immediately, Julie Larson-Green will lead Windows engineering. She will be responsible for all product development for Windows and Windows Live, in addition to Surface. Julie has been a stalwart leader of building compelling “experiences” from her time on Internet Explorer, through the evolution of Office and most recently to the re-imagination of Windows. Her unique product and innovation perspective and proven ability to effectively collaborate and drive a cross company agenda will serve us well as she takes on this new leadership role. All of the current Windows engineering teams will report into Julie, and Julie will report to me.

Tami Reller will lead business and marketing strategy for Windows including Surface and partner devices. She will provide broad stewardship to our PC marketing efforts while managing the line business functions for Windows. Her work on Windows since 2007 has been exemplary and her strong talents in working with internal groups and partners will also serve us well. Tami also will report to me.

We are facing a time of great opportunity. What we have accomplished over the past few years is nothing short of amazing, and I know we have more amazing in us. I am excited about our people, I am energized by our ability to change and grow, and I look forward to the success which lies ahead. Thank you for all you do, and please join me in congratulating our new leadership and celebrating all that we have accomplished so far.

Steve

And from Paul Thurrott we have Sinofsky's mail announcing his departure:

With the general availability of Windows 8/RT and Surface, I have decided it is time for me to take a step back from my responsibilities at Microsoft. I’ve always advocated using the break between product cycles as an opportunity to reflect and to look ahead, and that applies to me too.

After more than 23 years working on a wide range of Microsoft products, I have decided to leave the company to seek new opportunities that build on these experiences. My passion for building products is as strong as ever and I look forward focusing my energy and creativity along similar lines.

The Windows team, in partnerships across all of Microsoft and our industry, just completed products and services introducing a new era of Windows computing. It is an incredible experience to be part of a generational change in a unique product like Windows, one accomplished with an undeniable elegance. Building on Windows, Surface excels in design and utility for a new era of PCs. With the Store, Internet Explorer, Outlook.com, SkyDrive and more, each of which lead the way, this experience is connected to amazing cloud services.
It is inspiring to think of these efforts making their way into the hands of Microsoft’s next billion customers. We can reflect on this project as a remarkable achievement for each of us and for the team. Our work is not done, such is the world of technology, and so much more is in store for customers.

It is impossible to count the blessings I have received over my years at Microsoft. I am humbled by the professionalism and generosity of everyone I have had the good fortune to work with at this awesome company. I am beyond grateful.
I have always promised myself when the right time came for me to change course, I would be brief, unlike one of my infamous short blog posts, and strive to be less memorable than the products and teams with which I have been proudly and humbly associated. The brevity of this announcement is simply a feature.

Some might notice a bit of chatter speculating about this decision or timing. I can assure you that none could be true as this was a personal and private choice that in no way reflects any speculation or theories one might read—about me, opportunity, the company or its leadership.
As I’ve always believed in making space for new leaders as quickly as possible, this announcement is effective immediately and I will assist however needed with the transition.
I am super excited for what the future holds for the team and Microsoft.

Promoted Comments

I worked at Microsoft from Nov 2005-Jan 2012, and saw and was impacted by Sinofsky's takeover of Windows.

He's definitely a smart guy, and wrote a great internal blog on management and other topics. And he makes good products that work. But "not a team player" sure has resonance. He was brutal in getting rid of technologies he found competitive to Windows.

He essentially tore apart both the Windows Media and then the Silverlight teams to get development teams to build Windows features in the Windows org. And he made Silverlight go away as a meaningful platform because it validated Mac and downlevel versions of Windows, and made it impossible to even communicate to partners about plans for the future of Silverlight and .NET. This lost him a whole lot of XAML/C#/.NET developers during the nearly year-long period they were waiting to eventually discover that those technologies were alive and well in Win8 and a peer to HTML5 for Metro app development.

And those developers went to learn iOS and Flash for the most part. Which seemed self-defeating to me. Why throw away a critical mass of developers already working on Microsoft-centric technologies?

Basically he could be a great team player as long as he was in charge of the whole team, and I was really impressed by much of what he did. But his job was always Windows v.next, and he never really did much to support the other parts of Microsoft or the Windows ecosystem. After all, the version of WIndows people could buy wasn't ever the version he was building!

161 Reader Comments

It is telling in that Win8 has shipped. Just as Allchin stepped down after Vista shipped, and Valentine was retasked when Vista was reset in late 04/early 05(and left entirely in 06). He took over when Windows 2000 was signed off from the previous VP.

MS never changes management in the middle of a product cycle. Sinofsky's leaving was likely known at least a year ago, but he stayed on to see Win8 through to completion.

Quote:

Balmer's statement was pretty light on comments about Sinofsky, which is telling. I guess he lost the support of the CEO and board, and now he's history.

It is just the opposite. Ballmer's statement was not telling of anything, because it said very little. I could see that he might have been too territorial, however, thats a common criticism both inside and outside of MS. I know that when he was put in charge of Windows the hope was that he'd get Office and Windows on the same track since he came from Office. Office is now released without a major Metro makeover, so that did not happen to the degree I would have hoped...

The one thing this has in common with Petraeus: the timing is suspect. I'll have to see more data on how Win8 is doing before I make any assumptions that it has to do with that, but... yeah, interesting timing.

"Not a team player" is often a corporate euphemism used to describe brilliant people who are frustrated with idiots that surround them, and attempt to do everything themselves because someone else would botch it. Is that the case here? Or is the guy just a jerk who wanted to have his way no matter what?

In my experience those who are claimed to be brilliant while surrounded by idiots are usually the idiot. I've worked with and for plenty of people like that. Also, I was in the Windows division when Valentine ran it. Ugh.

This suprises me. I also heard he was difficult to work with. But he also pushed for a lot of changes that needed to occur, and got Windows on a regular release schedule again.

Where I work, "not a team player" means the guy is willing to sabotage and/or screw-over anyone else, all while boasting about how he is the best employee out there. He will say his team is the best, then turn around and fire a guy for not being productive enough. Everyone else knows the guy is a lying d-bag, including the bosses. Management defends him because he gets results...for a while. Again, just my own personal experience. May not be the case here.

I worked at Microsoft from Nov 2005-Jan 2012, and saw and was impacted by Sinofsky's takeover of Windows.

He's definitely a smart guy, and wrote a great internal blog on management and other topics. And he makes good products that work. But "not a team player" sure has resonance. He was brutal in getting rid of technologies he found competitive to Windows.

He essentially tore apart both the Windows Media and then the Silverlight teams to get development teams to build Windows features in the Windows org. And he made Silverlight go away as a meaningful platform because it validated Mac and downlevel versions of Windows, and made it impossible to even communicate to partners about plans for the future of Silverlight and .NET. This lost him a whole lot of XAML/C#/.NET developers during the nearly year-long period they were waiting to eventually discover that those technologies were alive and well in Win8 and a peer to HTML5 for Metro app development.

And those developers went to learn iOS and Flash for the most part. Which seemed self-defeating to me. Why throw away a critical mass of developers already working on Microsoft-centric technologies?

Basically he could be a great team player as long as he was in charge of the whole team, and I was really impressed by much of what he did. But his job was always Windows v.next, and he never really did much to support the other parts of Microsoft or the Windows ecosystem. After all, the version of WIndows people could buy wasn't ever the version he was building!

Everyone here bashing Sinofsky, let's not forget the absolute monstrous disaster that was Windows Vista. And guess what Sinofsky was brought in to release?

Windows 7.

Windows 7 was a fantastic release of Windows and is highly rated, and despite the knee-jerk reactions that are bloggers looking for ad revenue by 'hating' Windows 8, I've found 8 to be a rather awesome product. I'm already intending on building a new desktop PC that will make extensive use of Windows 8 features like Secure Boot (yes, I like it--I'm a security nerd) and Storage Spaces.

From what I'm reading on say, Hacker News, it seems that Sinofsky ruffled some feathers management-wise. He reorganized the Windows teams which reduced the 'top-heavy' burden that so many companies fall prey. Many companies often have layers upon layers of Product Managers, Project Managers, Team Leads, and everyone else--and absolutely nothing of value gets completed properly in these orgs because the wrong people are in those positions. Any and all ideas the developers had would end up getting filtered out through the layers upon layers of managers whose prime focus are "meeting deadlines", "meeting budgets", and having no time for new ideas. Want new ideas? Another team handles that! You, code monkeys, get back to work.

If you read the following article, http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57536 ... windows-8/, you'll notice that he pushed out the guy responsible for Windows Live Mesh. And good riddance! Who the hell honestly liked Live Mesh? In the era where cloud storage is moving who the hell wants MIME-specific storage? I mean, people like Google Docs ; but you can achieve that with Office 365. I always felt that Live Mesh was a shitty competitor to Dropbox in the way it was pushed and marketed and the way it functioned. It was just absolutely horrendous.

You know what I want for cloud storage? A remotely mountable volume that I can store data on that shows up as another drive in my OS. Dropbox comes the closest to that with having a folder that 'syncs' with the cloud, I can drop stuff in there and know it's out there and secure. Simple, easy, integrated.

Anyways, long story short--this is bad news for MS. If they become too management top heavy like many other failing organizations they will fail. I've always been a fan of MS' products. I pre-ordered Windows 8, I generally like its features and functionality--but I have no hope for Microsoft's future products after this move.

The reality is that Sinofsky was more or less the last of the old guard to leave. It would hardly be surprising if all the new wannabes did not like somebody who actually had a record of knowing what he was doing.

"Not a team player" is often a corporate euphemism used to describe brilliant people who are frustrated with idiots that surround them, and attempt to do everything themselves because someone else would botch it. Is that the case here? Or is the guy just a jerk who wanted to have his way no matter what?

In my experience those who are claimed to be brilliant while surrounded by idiots are usually the idiot. I've worked with and for plenty of people like that. Also, I was in the Windows division when Valentine ran it. Ugh.

This suprises me. I also heard he was difficult to work with. But he also pushed for a lot of changes that needed to occur, and got Windows on a regular release schedule again.

Where I work, "not a team player" means the guy is willing to sabotage and/or screw-over anyone else, all while boasting about how he is the best employee out there. He will say his team is the best, then turn around and fire a guy for not being productive enough. Everyone else knows the guy is a lying d-bag, including the bosses. Management defends him because he gets results...for a while. Again, just my own personal experience. May not be the case here.

At the organizations where I've worked, "not a team player" usually describes the people that are the ones championing the most proper way to get things done in an organization. I've seen this happen numerous times, to myself included, and generally people are ousted because they "go against the grain". "Going against the grain" is exactly what's needed, and it's why organizations such as Google and Apple are at the top of their game right now. Because they built something DIFFERENT that is completely against what any competitors were building.

These people should be HERALDED in organizations, not marginalized and booted.

"Not a team player" is often a corporate euphemism used to describe brilliant people who are frustrated with idiots that surround them, and attempt to do everything themselves because someone else would botch it. Is that the case here? Or is the guy just a jerk who wanted to have his way no matter what?

Reports I hear from inside the category say the latter. Look at all the internal transfers to the Azure team.

Peter - what are your initial thoughts how this event might effect Windows 8? By which I mean, in your Windows RT article you wrote about all the artificial restrictions that have been placed on the WinRT framework and also inter-operability between desktop apps and WinRT contracts, do you think Microsoft might now take a more gentler approach towards Windows 8?

I guess the question really is - Was Sinofsky the reason why Windows 8 & RT have such arbitrary artificial limits?

This is really shocking to say the least. Steven Sinofsky reminded me a great of Steve Jobs, somebody that had a hand in decisions, and was able to ( at least from the outside it appears this way ) allow the Microsoft's engineers shine.

I really hope they don't move away from their unified platform vision because its starting to take hold, it at the very least, way to early to throw in the towel on a single platform that can support Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and Windows RT or at the very least two platforms with very little divergence between them.

It really did appear that Steven Sinofsky was going to be the next CEO of Microsoft, he had the vision, and the experience required to take Microsoft into the next stage. Its clear that Microsoft needs to find somebody that will replace Steve Ballmer, somebody that can allow Microsoft to adapt, to the new era of personal electronic devices.

"Not a team player" is often a corporate euphemism used to describe brilliant people who are frustrated with idiots that surround them, and attempt to do everything themselves because someone else would botch it. Is that the case here? Or is the guy just a jerk who wanted to have his way no matter what?

Reports I hear from inside the category say the latter. Look at all the internal transfers to the Azure team.

Peter - what are your initial thoughts how this event might effect Windows 8? By which I mean, in your Windows RT article you wrote about all the artificial restrictions that have been placed on the WinRT framework and also inter-operability between desktop apps and WinRT contracts, do you think Microsoft might now take a more gentler approach towards Windows 8?

I guess the question really is - Was Sinofsky the reason why Windows 8 & RT have such arbitrary artificial limits?

I think he backed them, but I'd be surprised if he made the technical decisions. Besides, the UI was under Julie Larsen Green, and she's staying. She's been promoted, in fact.

If you read the following article, http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57536 ... windows-8/, you'll notice that he pushed out the guy responsible for Windows Live Mesh. And good riddance! Who the hell honestly liked Live Mesh? In the era where cloud storage is moving who the hell wants MIME-specific storage? I mean, people like Google Docs ; but you can achieve that with Office 365. I always felt that Live Mesh was a shitty competitor to Dropbox in the way it was pushed and marketed and the way it functioned. It was just absolutely horrendous.

You know what I want for cloud storage? A remotely mountable volume that I can store data on that shows up as another drive in my OS. Dropbox comes the closest to that with having a folder that 'syncs' with the cloud, I can drop stuff in there and know it's out there and secure. Simple, easy, integrated.

You lost me here. Mesh could do exactly what you wanted, it did both PC to PC and PC to cloud sync, could sync any folder you wanted, or you could just put a 'sync' folder anywhere on your system(just like Dropbox) and sync everything in that to Skydrive.

You are criticizing a product you apparently never actually used. Mesh was brilliant, and its discontinuation has screwed over a lot of my clients who relied on it to make certain they had more than one copy of a given file accessible on more than one machine.

Steven wasn't fired. However, it's a statistic (I don't know the source.) that 95% of the reasons why people get fired from their jobs is not incompetence, honest, inability to deliver results, failure to show up at work on time, etc. (the usual reasons people suggest) but the failure to get along with fellow employees.

Windows 8 and RT may be fine for certain segments of the users, but Steven may have pushed the limits on his leadership at Microsoft a bit too much. I'm sure he was creative, imaginative, etc. but the personal relationships at work--when they go sour--infect the whole environment and kill creativity, productivity and general motivation. When that happens watch out...

If you read the following article, http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57536 ... windows-8/, you'll notice that he pushed out the guy responsible for Windows Live Mesh. And good riddance! Who the hell honestly liked Live Mesh? In the era where cloud storage is moving who the hell wants MIME-specific storage? I mean, people like Google Docs ; but you can achieve that with Office 365. I always felt that Live Mesh was a shitty competitor to Dropbox in the way it was pushed and marketed and the way it functioned. It was just absolutely horrendous.

You know what I want for cloud storage? A remotely mountable volume that I can store data on that shows up as another drive in my OS. Dropbox comes the closest to that with having a folder that 'syncs' with the cloud, I can drop stuff in there and know it's out there and secure. Simple, easy, integrated.

You lost me here. Mesh could do exactly what you wanted, it did both PC to PC and PC to cloud sync, could sync any folder you wanted, or you could just put a 'sync' folder anywhere on your system(just like Dropbox) and sync everything in that to Skydrive.

You are criticizing a product you apparently never actually used. Mesh was brilliant, and its discontinuation has screwed over a lot of my clients who relied on it to make certain they had more than one copy of a given file accessible on more than one machine.

SkyDrive certainly had aspects that were desirable, but Mesh was far and away the better tech. Any sane company would have used Mesh as the basis and added to it the useful SkyDrive features (lots of storage, Web access, integration with Office Web Apps and Hotmail).

Wow this is unexpected (from an outsider's standpoint at least). I can't imagine it was just a parting of ways because he wasn't a team player. Possible infidelity involved? Lawsuit avoided? Seems odd to be immediate. Whatever happened it didn't end well that's for sure.

Where by "unexpected" you mean "not in the least surprising"?Look, Windows8 is shaping up as a major league disaster, and the only people who refuse to admit it are the same sort of people who insisted Nate Silver didn't know what he was talking about.

So what does MS do in this situation? You can't undo the damage that has been done by insisting on tying together the mobile and desktop UIs as long as the prime force behind that tying together is still in power. It simply won't work --- you'll be sabotaged at every turn. The only way to move forward is to get rid of the people behind the Metro clusterfsck, and try to dig yourselves out of the whole by rolling the whole idea back. (Naturally, of course, this rollout will be accompanied by happy PR talk about "listening to customers" and "expanding options" and "we're always evolving the platform" and so on.

To compare this to Forstall is ridiculous. Forstall left at the top of his game (and presumably because he was less important than the talent he was driving away). Sinofsky leaves just before the **** hits the fan, because that is the ONLY WAY FOR MS TO SOLVE ITS PROBLEM. He would have been fired even if he were the nicest guy in the world --- you don't (unless you're a Wall Street bank playing with US taxpayer money) use the same guy who got you into a mess to get you out of it.

My guess, it's because the Windows Store is empty, that's failure on it's own level, regardless of how decent the new operating system is, or cute the Surface is.

All the windows stores are empty... Rt, 8, wp8... Who ever made the decision to lock developers out prior to launch is an idiot. You launch anew platform that you been telling everyone about for two years, but you secret away the sdk until after launch? What utter buffoonery... If this is true, then a lot more people need to be leaving Microsoft.

Maybe Sinofsky's departure will mean we will get our desktop back in Windows 8 via a update. I don't have a problem with W8 necessarily since I could fix it. But as a desktop user it would be nice to have the Start Menu back. I also kind of miss my glass Aero windows from W7 since I have high powered graphics cards that could do it without sweat, now going to waste. I know gadget are a security risk but I found 3 or 4 indispensable and missed them in W8.

I have patched and fixed W8 to be what I had in W7 and am happy about it now. But I really should not have had to go to that trouble to make it so! Most people don't have the desire or ability to go to the trouble I have go through to make it so!

All the pre-releases of W8 showed that it was entirely possible to preserve the W7 desktop completely intact in W8 and still have the ability to use and explore the new Metro side of things without it being forced upon us!

So tank Sinofsky and give us our W7 desktop back and let us use the new W8 features as they become useful and contributing to our overall computer experience. Evolution man! Not revolution!

I suspect their has been some serious blow-back from corporate IT regarding W8 for desktop use. MS need to keep their platform open versus closing it. Maybe keep it closed on the Metro side but leave the desktop side open.

So Microsoft will have no people with techical background leading Windows product lines. Salesman as CEO, business management graduate as engineering lead, marketing executive as business lead.

Here is not so bold prediction that Ballmer will be out of Microsoft in less than 12 months.

EDIT before more downvotes (at the risk of even more downvotes):

I guess all those downvotes are from people who are probably not developers. My point is that enginners/developers will have a hard time taking marching orders from mostly non-technical people. As for Sinofsky's effort on Windows 8 and Metro, I am not impressed. In fact, I was hoping that both Ballmer and Sinofsky will be replaced with someone more competent.

I am not really sure about the whole Arm surface thing! I can see it struggling since it is closed on the desktop side.

But that said, I also understand it being an appliance that can't be hacked and that may be desirable. It will be great for people who only surf the net and do casual social stuff. That covers about 90% of the users out there!

Arm is going to be a power in it's own right in the not too distance future regarding performance versus Intel. So it makes some since in that regard. Also, it may be a close port of the W8 Phone platform so they will complement themselves as they grow and prosper.

Point is, was Sinofsky constraining all this harmony by insisting his way or no way? I say open it all up and see which way it evolves and jump on the bandwagon and grow it! Don't kill it all doing it Sinofsky's way!

If Microsoft is really serious about forging 'one OS to rule them all' (all form factors, that is), then they can't afford much infighting. But, they're notorious for that, aren't they? It has shown in their various interfaces, with ribbons fighting menus, now live tiles v. desktop, etc... and with some battles over the underlying tech as well. Now more than ever, on the applications front at least, they need consistent interfaces and UI philosophies. The point here being that all of the division managers really do need to be team players, beyond the corporate-speak context. The various divisions can't fight each other to see whose tech wins, and no division can work in a vacuum. Windows 8/RT brings that all to the fore, doesn't it? Basically, I think they need to angle toward 'flattening' their organization, and getting ALL of their developers on the same page. Even one bull-headed team leader, no matter how brilliant or visionary, can make that impossible.

Gah, sorry but I hate the idea of Julie Larson-Green being as high as she was - let alone as high as she is now. I'm not sure which direction Tami Reller is heading but hopefully she's a good balancing force.